1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly to a facsimile apparatus capable of removing a stack of recording sheets that have been ejected.
2. Description of the Related Art
Saving space is an important concept in designing an office apparatus, in particular when an apparatus is expected to be installed in a busy space. One example of such an office apparatus is a so-called wing-less type facsimile apparatus. In a usual facsimile apparatus, sheet containers such as paper trays, for example, are normally mounted on the body of the apparatus in such a way that the sheet containers protrude from the body of the apparatus, as wings. Accordingly, a footprint of such sheet containers normally protrudes from the footprint of the body of the apparatus and a total footprint of the apparatus becomes larger. This may cause a space problem in an office environment, for example. The wing-less type facsimile apparatus has resolved this problem by arranging sheet containers in a position where a footprint of the sheet containers does not protrude from the footprint of the body of the apparatus. However, in general, the wing-less type facsimile apparatus has a relatively narrow space for accommodating printed sheets which are produced by the apparatus. Therefore, when a relatively large number of printed sheets are produced without removing them from time to time, the apparatus may cause a jam of the printed sheets due to the narrow space which can accommodate a limited number of sheets. This may occur in a case, for example, when an apparatus is located in an office which is closed for a holiday and the apparatus receives a large amount of data to print without an attendant available.
FIG. 21 illustrates a typical example of the wing-less type facsimile apparatus 1. The apparatus 1 includes a photoconductive drum 2 for forming an electrostatic latent image on a surface thereof, a cleaner 3 for cleaning the surface of the photoconductive drum 2, a charger 4 for charging the whole surface of the photoconductive drum 2 at a uniform voltage level, and a laser writing unit 5 for generating a laser beam to write an image on the surface of the photoconductive drum 2. The apparatus 1 further includes a development unit 6 for developing an electrostatic latent image in a visual image with toner, a toner magazine 7 for supplying toner to the development unit 6, a transfer roller 8 that is in contact with the surface of the photoconductive drum 2, and a fixing unit 9 that includes pressure and heat rollers. The apparatus 1 further includes a sheet cassette 10 that is detachably mounted on the apparatus and contains a plurality of recording sheets P, a pair of transferring rollers 11 for transferring a recording sheet P along a sheet passage, and a pair of registration rollers 12 for transferring a recording sheet P at a time relative to a rotation of the photoconductive drum 2 in an image forming process. The apparatus 1 further includes a pair of ejection rollers 13 for ejecting the recording sheet P to an outside of the apparatus 1, a sheet-eject detect sensor 14 that is located before the ejection rollers 13 and which detects the recording sheet P, a first outlet tray 15 formed at an upper surface of the apparatus 1 and which accommodates the recording sheet P ejected by the ejection rollers 13, and a sheet roller 16 for forwarding the recording sheet P to the transferring rollers 11. The apparatus 1 further includes a scanner 20 that reads an image and generates an image signal, an inlet tray 21 for accommodating a plurality of original sheets, an image reading sensor 22 for reading an image of an original sheet, and a second outlet tray 23 for accommodating an original sheet after a completion of the reading operation by the scanner 20.
In the above-mentioned wing-less type facsimile apparatus 1, an operation for outputting an image onto the recording sheet P is performed in the following way. When the apparatus 1 receives a call signal via a telephone line switching system, the telephone line is closed and a control section (not shown) of the apparatus 1 is linked to a call originating machine over the telephone line. Then, the controller section of the apparatus 1 receives an image signal from the call originating machine in accordance with predetermined protocols and stores data of the received image signal into an image memory. Then, an amount of data of the received image signal that corresponds to one page of a recording sheet is read from the image memory and loaded to a page memory. Based on the page data stored in the page memory, the control section of the apparatus 1 generates a drive signal for driving the laser writing unit 5.
Further, in the image outputting operation, the control section of the apparatus 1 has the photoconductive drum 2 rotated in the direction indicated by an arrow in the drawing and charged at a predetermined voltage level with the charger 4, upon a start of receiving an image signal. The laser writing unit 5 is driven by the drive signal from the control section to generate a laser beam that corresponds to the image signal. By irradiation with the laser beam from the writing unit 5, the photoconductive drum 2 forms an electrostatic latent image on the surface thereof.
The toner magazine 7 supplies toner to the development unit 6 with a timing of a rotational movement of the photoconductive drum 2. The supplied toner is forwarded to a development roller (not shown) which is included in the development unit 6 and flattened on a surface of the development roller. Then, the toner on the development roller is selectively attracted to the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the photoconductive drum 2 so as to visualize the image with toner. The visualized image with toner is referred to as a toner image.
Further, in the image outputting operation, the sheet roller 16 rotates to retrieve one recording sheet P from the sheet cassette 10 and to transfer the sheet P to the transferring rollers 11. Then, the transferring rollers 11 transfer the recording sheet P to the registration rollers 12. The transferred recording sheet P stops when the top edge of the sheet P impinges on a region where the registration rollers 12 are in contact with each other. The registration rollers 12 restart the transfer of the recording sheet P at a time when a top portion of the image on the photoconductive drum 2 reaches a predetermined region. When the recording sheet P passes between the photoconductive drum 2 and the transfer roller 8 and reaches a predetermined position, the toner image is transferred from the photoconductive drum 2 to the transfer roller 8.
The image-transferred recording sheet P is separated from the photoconductive drum 2 with separation pawls (not shown) or the like and transferred to the fixing unit 9. The fixing unit 9 applies pressure and heat to the toner image so as to fix the image onto the recording sheet P. Then, the image-fixed recording sheet P is ejected from the inside of the apparatus 1 to the first outlet tray 15 by the ejection rollers 13.
Further, in the image outputting operation, the control section of the apparatus 1 transfers the next page data stored in the image memory into the page memory so that another cycle of the above-described image forming operation may be performed. The control section repeats this page data transfer from the image memory to the page memory until all the images in accordance with the received image signal are output onto the recording sheets P through the repeated cycles of the image outputting operation. After all the images have been output in this way, the recording sheets P ejected by the ejection rollers 13 are stacked upon the first outlet tray 15.
In the thus-arranged wing-less type facsimile apparatus 1, the first outlet tray 15, the second outlet tray 23, and the inlet tray 21 are designed to not protrude from the body of the apparatus 1 so as to not enlarge a footprint of the apparatus 1, and thus meet the requirements of saving space.
However, as described above, the aforementioned wing-less type facsimile apparatus may cause a paper jam problem due to its relatively narrow space for accommodating printed sheets when a relatively large amount of printed sheets are produced without removing them from time to time, in a case, for example, when the apparatus in an office which is closed for a holiday receives a large amount of data to print and an attendant is not available.
For example, JPAP07-203118 discloses a facsimile apparatus which has a plurality of sheet trays and controls to eject recording sheets to other sheet trays when a jam is caused in the present sheet tray.
Further, for example, JPAP08-277055 discloses a copying apparatus which has a fan for preventing paper jams around a sheet ejection mechanism.
However, these disclosures do not solve the problem of the wing-less type facsimile apparatus having one sheet tray for receiving an ejected recording sheet and a limited space for stacking the ejected recording sheet.
At present, there is no such facsimile apparatus that has a relatively small footprint and that is capable of removing a stack of recording sheets that have been ejected.